Chris Lombardi puts defense and security under the spotlight, as he shares his takes on recent NATO and EU cooperation and provides insight into the company’s own long-term strategic partnerships in Europe.

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Barroso’s energy Brits

From European Voice's Entre-Nous column

9/26/07, 5:00 PM CET

Updated 4/23/14, 8:42 PM CET

European Commission President José Manuel Barroso has taken a politically daring line on breaking up France and Germany’s energy giants, defying both Nicolas Sarkozy and Angela Merkel who want their national champions to maintain dominant positions on the European markets. But conspiracy theorists suspect that the proximity of Barroso’s approach to that of the UK government might have something to do with the preponderance of Britons working on Commission energy policy. In Barroso’s private office, his chief adviser on energy was Alex Ellis, a UK diplomat on secondment, and his replacement, Matthew Baldwin, is keeping the energy dossier. Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs has a Briton, Christopher Jones, as the deputy head of his private office, and recently recruited another Englishman, Peter Vis, to his team of advisers.

There is something splendidly parochial about the state-aid investigation launched last week by the European Commission’s competition department into JC Decaux, a French advertising company. The question …